Throughout my life I’ve struggled to find meaning. I’ve wondered, am I alone in this? I’d like to hear what others have to say. Particularly others that are more knowledgeable in philosophy.
Throughout my life I’ve struggled to find meaning. I’ve wondered, am I alone in this? I’d like to hear what others have to say. Particularly others that are more knowledgeable in philosophy.
What is it you seek? What is it you lack? It can be helpful to look into these questions carefully. It can also be helpful to take time to look at the exact moment-by-moment experience of this life that appears lacking. After years of philosophical study and years of trying to convince myself I wasn’t dissatisfied, I stumbled upon Zen and found these kinds of investigations helpful.
After thinking about it, a life with comforts is all I need. Ac, heat when it’s cold, some fresh veggies and that’s pretty much it
That sounds about right!
Zen, I’ll have to look in to this. Moment by moment experience as well.
It’s not really Zen to advertise Zen at people, and it can take a while to find your way into it, but I have found it helpful for showing me how life can be at once confusing and challenging and also deeply unproblematic. It doesn’t hand you any doctrine or answers, so it can be very baffling at first, but if you stick with it, your world can start to open up. For me it brought back some of that simple immediacy I remembered from childhood and assumed was lost for good. Not some cheesy born-again religious thing but still, an end to the subtle but painful sense of alienation that had only worsened through years of chasing philosophy, relationships, jobs, a sense of security, etc. Be warned that there’s a lot of sitting silently involved. If you’re interested I’d recommend looking for a local center where you can meditate and talk to a teacher. It’s not something you can do from books or practice alone, at least until you’re somewhat secure in the practice.
“What is it you seek?”
I suppose this may be the problem because to be honest, I’m not sure.
I’m not sure anyone is, and that’s worth seeing in itself. It’s one of those questions where neither you nor anyone else can just hand over a satisfactory answer, but that doesn’t mean there’s no answer, or that it’s not worth looking for one.